State of Scanlation | Update Post

State of Scanlation | Update Post

Not exactly sure on how to start this out, but I believe it’s safe to say this post should’ve been made a long time ago…
Although I rarely speak on our Discord server, I do like to converse. Soooo this’ll probably be a long post.
Ah… Make sure you at least read the last paragraph!!! (There’s a TL;DR at the bottom if you’re too lazy to read everything).

Starting off strong with releases!
As of now, we have not a single chapter to release. Want to know why? Because of life.
We’ve always lacked editors (Redrawers & Typesetters), it’s just unfortunate that this fact presents itself so aggressively at this moment in time. Our staff is either in school/college/university and/or work. We simply have very little time to put towards working on chapters right now. I believe it’s correct to say that we’re currently in a pretty bad cycle – and a vicious one at that. Some staff motivate themselves on constantly releasing chapters. But, as we haven’t been able to release anything due to lack of time, finding the motivation to work on chapters in our current state is proving difficult.

“Why don’t you employ your staff full-time?”
I’ve heard/received this question way too many times over the last few months, and now would be a good time to respond to it.
We do NOT make nearly enough money to be able to employ staff full-time, let alone pay for our needs every month. Since late August/early September, we’ve had a fall off of over $300 since then. Yes, we are extremely grateful for the support we receive every month no matter the amount in total at the end of it. And we’re also lucky to be in the position we are in how much money we receive a month. But nevertheless, this decline in donations does hurt us financially. On average, we spend around ~$220 – $250 a month. Although I don’t particularly have a problem with supplying the remainder of the funds we need each month, I think it’s safe to say that you understand where I’m coming from in that, “We don’t make nearly enough money to be able to employ staff full-time.” Worst case scenario, we put ads on the site (which I really don’t want to do unless absolutely necessary).
While on the topic of donations, I do understand why we’ve had such a decline over the months. The amount we receive depends entirely on the quantity of chapters we release that month, as well as which chapters of series we release. Even though we don’t release nearly as often as we did previously (reasons in the paragraph above), It would be much appreciated if people still considered becoming a patron! Be it $1 or $3, every patron helps!

Onto projects!
Right, I’m gonna state this here and now. NO WE HAVEN’T DROPPED TANAKA THE WIZARD!
The translator who previously worked on the series didn’t want to continue it after chapter 4. As I never pressure staff into doing anything they aren’t interested in, I happily accepted the translator’s wishes. Funnily enough, that same day the translator dropped off the project, a different translator stepped in! At least we thought… After months and months of waiting for translations to arrive, nothing ever came through. Since then, we’ve had four different translators all apply, say that they wanted to work on Tanaka The Wizard, [apparently] start translating and never send the translations!! All whilst this is going on, readers have constantly asked, no, not ask, some even beg for us to start releasing it again! This is driving us crazy!!!!!! Thankfully, we do have a translator working on Tanaka The Wizard – Chapter 5, and he has been around for a while now so we know for a fact that we’ll eventually receive the translation! Just that, his translations take quite a while to do… So until then, we’ll continue to wait – just like you – for the project to come back to life!

Now then, onto the other projects!
Yes, we are aware that we’re now a month behind on our usual monthly projects. As said many times previously, we do have a reason for it, and we are working on catching back up. Please know that some monthly projects have had the raws delayed a month or two, so it isn’t entirely our fault. (Exterminator was also delayed this month). Some readers – in an attempt to have their desired series released – have started going to other groups claiming that we’ve dropped the project. Nice try, but no. From what I know, i’ve had every group come to me for confirmation as to whether or not we’ve actually dropped the series. Unless we announce in a post that we’ve dropped a series, then we still have plans on continuing it. Just be patient like everyone else and wait.
Monthly projects (usually) contain 30 – 60 pages and consume a lot of time working on them. And with our current lack of such an important factor, time, these will release a lot slower than the other projects.

Whew… It took some time, but we’re finally at the end of it!
Our first year of scanlating anniversary is coming up!! In celebration, we plan on doing something special. Only thing is, it’ll take some time to do…
Thus, from now until the 21st of November, there won’t be any releases. We’re scrapped for time as it is, so with what little time we do have, we’d like to put it towards something special to us. Our first year as a group. Honestly speaking, there wasn’t going to be that many releases between now and then anyway as, you know… We’re all busy!! If any redrawers want to help us out, now would be the perfect time to join!

TL;DR, Lack of time has caused a chain reaction of unfortunate events. So, we’ll be taking a break in preparation for something amazing.
Thank you for your understanding.